Probably the most important thing I’ve learned this time round is how vital planning can be. I have the basic outline of each book in my head – what the crime is, who does it, how they get caught, but as the story progresses new characters and events appear and confuse the way. Towards the end it is a bit like building a bridge from both sides of a canyon at the same time. You keep going, adding each layer and hoping it will meet in the middle…
Thankfully after a bit of stripping down and rewriting it did but I don’t want to go through that again!
Off to use my indispensable copy of “Inspiration” mapping software so this time I am working from a much more solid framework.

The next book is an extra – there will be four Somerset books to the series with some stand-alone and possible Kindle-only novellas.

More on this next time.